


Shek O

by talefeathers



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 11:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12298422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: Today would have been Yancy's 30th birthday, and Raleigh wants to do something special.  Mako has just the thing.





	Shek O

**Author's Note:**

  * For [witticaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/witticaster/gifts).



> So according to the Pacific Rim Wiki Yancy’s birthday is November 7, but I decided to make it a month earlier just for Bria! So happy birthday Bri, and welcome to the terror dome.

Mako had wondered all week if Raleigh would say anything.

It had been nearly a year since they collapsed the Breach; nearly a year since the last time she and Raleigh had entered the Drift. They continued to train together at the Shatterdome, of course, but with the Breach sealed and the next generation of jaegers still under construction, neither of them had undertaken anything more taxing than a simulation since January. Still, she had been inside his head, and she knew everything he knew.

She knew that today would have been Yancy Becket’s 30th birthday.

Luckily, she didn't have to wait long to have her answer; the message came just as she was getting in from her morning run:

ローリー (07:33): Can you do something with me?

Her lips twitched in a grin that was half grimace as her heart felt a tug of empathy. She fished a water bottle from the mini-fridge in her quarters, texting him back with one hand.

マコ (07:34): Sure. When?

At noon they were at Raleigh’s favorite restaurant: a dive in Hung Hom whose sweet and sour pork turned the rough-and-tumble Anchorage boy into a jelly-legged romantic poet. He made a show of eating with his customary gusto, and she made a show of teasing him and feinting attempts at stealing his food, but neither of them had to be in the Drift to know that Raleigh was hurting more deeply than usual.

He eventually did go quiet, pushing the last of his pork around his plate as he rolled something over in his mind. Now that Mako had been in his thoughts, to be out of them was utterly maddening, but she said nothing; she knew that prying only clammed him up further, that he would let her in once he had settled on the words with which to do so. And she knew, if nothing else, that Raleigh could rarely keep his mouth shut for long. 

“I couldn’t think of what to do for today,” he said at last. “I used to buy him comics, you know? _Iron Man_ comics; those were his favorite. And then as we got older it was _Iron Man_ comics and booze. And then, after…”

He exhaled, and his lips twitched into a grin that was half grimace.

“After Knifehead it was _Iron Man_ comics for him and booze for me.”

Mako felt that same tug of empathy deep in her chest. She reached her hand across the table and he took it.

“But today he’s thirty, you know?” he continued, looking up for the first time and grinning. “He’s -- he’d be fucking thirty. A real geezer. You gotta do something big for that, right?”

Mako returned his smile.

“Yes” she agreed. “Something special.”

“Yeah,” Raleigh said. “But I can’t think of anything. Nothing I can do without him here, anyway. I dunno.” He sighed again and ran his free hand through his hair.

“I should have gone home,” he said.

Tears began to itch at Mako’s eyes -- partially for Yancy, whose death she had felt in the Drift, but mostly for Raleigh, who was noble and loving and who hadn’t deserved to lose him.

“Have you done much sightseeing in Hong Kong?” she asked.

Raleigh shook his head. 

“Not as much as I probably should’ve,” he shrugged. 

Mako nodded, biting down on her lower lip, thinking. Then, slowly, as an idea took shape, she smiled.

“I may have something you could do,” she told him. “If you don’t mind me coming along.”

“Yeah?” he said. He lit up a little, and Mako felt her heart glow.

“Yeah.” She squeezed his hand a bit harder than was friendly. “And you can work off some of that pork.”

“Oh, fantastic,” he said, rolling his eyes and grinning. “I love this idea already.”

In another two hours, they were hiking.

Mako had led the way to the Dragon’s Back trail, which ran along a ridge of untouched forest on the southeastern side of Hong Kong Island. They spoke very little, but every time Mako looked back to on Raleigh to make sure he was keeping up he met her gaze with a smile. And with good reason, Mako thought; it was a pleasant trek, with breezes sneaking through the trees to play with their hair and butterflies flitting past to check in.

They reached Shek O Peak just as the sun was beginning to set.

“Whoa,” Raleigh huffed when he stopped moving long enough to take a look around, in a voice so gruffly American that Mako couldn’t help but laugh.

“Here,” she said, gently taking his arm to guide him to a wooden bench situated at the edge of the peak. “You can see Tung Lung from here,” she told him. “Look.”

“Aw, yeah,” Raleigh said, bemused. He seemed only barely to notice the distant island, however. His eyes were focused on the brilliant gradient the sunset was painting into the clouds. It was hard to look away from him when he looked so genuinely awestruck, but somehow Mako managed. Once again they were in silence, watching the sun’s radiant descent into the sea. 

Neither of them spoke again until only a thin line of brilliant orange separated the day from the night.

“Yancy would’ve liked this, Mako,” Raleigh said. She turned to face him, and even in the dying light she could see that his cheeks were wet with tears. “He would’ve loved this.”

Mako smiled, hard as it was to do once tears began to fall down her own face. She took his face into her hands, wiping a thumb beneath each of his eyes and pressing his forehead to her own. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and after a moment he buried his face into her shoulder. He wept quietly, and she let him, holding onto him long after the world had gone dark.


End file.
